I am a total newbie, been poking around Other Power for years though, doing a lot of reading, research, planning and this concept of a VAWT intrigues me so much that I am going to develop a scale model (very small scale, likely less than a foot tall total) to test and prove the concept. (Really wish I had a 3D printer, that would make this much easier...)
www.cal-epower.com has devised a VAWT for industrial use that is over 30% efficient. Granted, that turbine is very large, 10' diameter and 50' tall blades. The concept is for there to be a forward facing airfoil. This will accelerate the wind on the face of one side of the turbine while protecting the reverse side. The drag is reduced on the "non-flight" side of the wing. Seems like a very interesting idea to play with to me.
Here's a mock up of what I plan to construct (materials unknown, likely a combination of wood/plastic/cardboard and filler material (plaster/fiberglass). I'm building a prototype model so...it's not going to get actual flight time.
The goals are:
1. Test just the savonius turbine blades alone without any airfoil to get a base measurement performance: Startup, velocity, torque.
2. Test the turbine with the airfoil and compare the performance.
3. Use different blade, wing configurations to maximize performance.
I will post on my findings and update.
Here's a 3-D rendering of the concept.